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Alumni Classroom 2017
Clark Anderson stood confidently on the diving board at the community pool in St. George, Utah. The eighth grader noticed the lifeguards talking among themselves and imagined they were discussing how skilled of a swimmer he was. He decided to prove them right.
“Making a difference.” “Making the world a better place.” Use these phrases enough and they start sounding stale. But backed by real results, the work of MPA alumni is proving the skills developed within the walls of the Marriott School can make meaningful—and real—change.
Adam Mikkelsen grew up on a farm in Oregon where, no matter the chore, he was always looking for ways to improve. At BYU he studied economics before switching to global supply chain so he could be more hands-on with his work. As a student, he interned at an industrial auditing firm as an auditing intern, where he traveled across the western Chinese province of Qinghai in order to share best practices and greener technology between the companies there and in Utah. Later, he worked at Walmart as a merchandising analyst for apparel sourcing. He accepted a job as a strategy and operations consultant at Deloitte after graduating in April 2015 because he believed international consulting will give him a better opportunity to work and travel.
Within a two-year span, five information systems classmates left BYU to start their careers—only to find themselves working side-by-side once again.
Sumo wrestling, Buddhist temples, sushi and cherry blossoms seem as commonplace as Shavasana for finance guru Ryan Daniels, a Marriott School finance alum. Daniels has spent half of his life growing up and working outside the United States, including his current position at tech giant Apple in China.
As a twelve-year-old boy, John Southcott started mowing lawns so he could buy paintball equipment. However, before ever firing his hard-earned munition, Southcott habitually took apart each gun he bought, laying out all the pieces in order to understand how the gun worked.